


Fantastic Fables

by Codename_Mallory_Grace



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU that no one wanted, Series of One Shots, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9211427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codename_Mallory_Grace/pseuds/Codename_Mallory_Grace
Summary: A series of fairytales AU one shots.Tiny Teenie:Porpentina is a little flower maiden that lives with Queenie that gets kidnapped by a marriage-minded toad. But nothing's going to stop her from getting back home to Queenie. Not even beetles, moles, horrible weather, or (worst of all) marriage proposals.[Newt/Tina, mentions of Queenie/Jacob]12 Dancing Princesses of Burrows:King Arthur and Queen Molly have a mystery afoot. Every morning, their 12 daughters' shoes are worn through as if they've been dancing all night. But no one enters or leaves their bed chambers. Income Newt and Neville, who are determined to solve the mystery.[Newt/Tina, Queenie/Jacob, Seraphina and Percival friendship, Neville/Hannah, and almost every other cannon couple]Queenie and the (Baker) Frog:Queenie side of Tiny Teenie. She misses her flower maiden, but  she meets a frog that keeps her company. Despite not wanting to, Queenie becomes more fond of the frog overtime.[Queenie/Jacob]





	1. Tiny Teenie

There once lived a beautiful and lonely maiden. She lived by herself on the edge of a great kingdom. She lost her parents at a young age and had no other living family. Yet that didn’t stop her from living life. She lived her dream of a dressmaker, but part of her missed having a family. The maiden, Queenie, however, couldn’t bear children. Like everything else in her life, that barrier didn’t stop her from doing every possible thing to have child. She went to every medic for advice and midwife for any possible adoptions. And as a last resort, she prayed to any and every higher entity that could hear her.

 

A fairy, at last, heard her wish.

One night, the fairy came to her window and said, “I have heard your wish for a child. Will you accept my assistance?”

“Yes,” Queenie said. “What do I need to do?”

“It’s simple, here is a barleycorn seed of a unique variety. Plant it in a garden and see what happens.”

“Thank you so much,” Queenie took the seed and gave the fairy a modest payment in return.

She spent the next morning planting the barleycorn seed and rearranging her other spice plants.

A month later, a large flower grew and casted a shadow over the rest of the garden. The flower looked like a poppy in color and smelled like one, but the petals were still closed as if it was a bud.

“It’s a beautiful flower,” Queenie cooed and kissed the budding flower. When she did, the flower bloomed at last. It was indeed a poppy. Within the poppy, right in the middle, slept a little maiden.

She had brown hair with a mix of white strands. Her hair was short enough that it stuck out in all kinds of directions. Her nose was cute as a button, Queenie thought. She reminded Queenie of a baby porcupine. So she aptly named the flower maiden Porpentina, Tina for short. But Queenie loved to call her Teenie for her small size. She made Teenie a bed out of a polished walnut shell with small fabric scraps stitched together as a blanket and some left over cotton stuffing as a pillow.

The two maidens lived happily together. Despite, originally wanting a child, Queenie soon understood that Teenie isn’t going to be a maiden that needed to be taken care of. Rather, Queenie spent her days dressmaking while Teenie kept her workspace organized or perched on her shoulder to read. Every once in while, she disappeared for a few hours, but always returned with materials for the next dress, without Queenie saying anything. But most of all, she made sure Queenie always had someone to talk. They talked about the latest dress, Teenie’s observations of the greater world, or anything else that happened during their day.

In the end, Queenie was being taken care of more than she took care of Teenie. But she wouldn’t have anyone else be her family. The little flower maiden was the most precious person in her life.

 

Queenie, however, wasn’t the only one to note Tina’s independent and helpful nature. A mother toad watched Tina and Queenie for many months and concluded that Tina would make the perfect bride her to her eldest son, Mr. Abernathy. After days of planning, the mother toad broke a window in the night. She sneakily hopped to the table where Tina’s walnut bed lied. The toad hugged the small bed with her front feet and hopped back outside to her home.

In the swamp, beyond Queenie’s house, lived the mother toad and her unpleasant son. When her son first saw Tina, he could only say, “Croak, croak, croak.”

“Don’t speak too loudly,” chided his mother, “or she’ll wake up and run away from us. We need to place her on a waterlily in the stream. She’ll be on an island and won’t be able to escape. And while she’s there, we’ll prepare the state-room under the marsh for you two to live during your marriage.”

The conspiring toads enacted their plans flawlessly. They swam to the farthest waterlily with Tina still asleep in the walnut.

Tina didn’t wake up until dawn the next day. When she didn’t see Queenie anywhere nearby, she let out a bitter cry. There was nothing but water around her. There wasn’t any way to get back to land for she didn’t know how to swim.

In the meantime, the mother toad was busy under the marsh cleaning the room for her new daughter-in-law. She decorated the room with yellow poppies to best show off her son’s green skin. Then she and her son swam out to fetch Tina’s bed to place in the bridal chamber. She bowed to Tina and introduced herself, “You may call me Mrs. Esposito and this is my son Mr. Abernathy. He will be fine husband for you and you shall live happily with him.”

“Croak, croak, croak,” was all Mr. Abernathy said.

While Tina was focused on her son, Mrs. Esposito took the opportunity to steal the walnut bed and swam away. Her son quickly followed.

Tina was left alone on the waterlily. Her last reminder of Queenie was gone. So she wept because of the separation from Queenie, the idea of living with an overbearing toad, and the idea of a toad for a husband. During her crying, she realized that she has never met another person her size. And she’s never desired to do so as much as she did at that moment.

Once she finished weeping, she started to plan an escape. She cautiously stood up on the waterlily to test its movement. It swayed a bit, but didn’t reach land. Tina, however, envisioned paddling as far as the waterlily will allow with the flower’s petals. Then pluck the flower and float on it to land.

Tina’s paddling was successful, but when she moved to float on the flower, the water was rushing downstream too fast and away from land. It wasn’t what she intended, but it got her away from the toads.

 

The stream flowed past many towns. She wasn’t lonely, however, while floating downstream. A small thunderbird flew around her and often gave her flower a gust of wind whenever the water stilled. But to move faster, she ripped the hem of her dress and tied one end around the thunderbird and the other around her flower.

Throughout the days, she and thunderbird, who called himself Frank, shared seeds for meals. It was during one of these meals that a beetle, called Gnarlak,flew down and wrapped his first two legs around Tina’s waist. He tried to reach for Frank by the ribbon around his neck, but Frank’s wings were too strong to be held back by a beetle and escaped. Tina struggled during Frank’s escape, but it was futile in the end. Gnarlak flew them to a high tree nearby and gave her a honeysuckle flower. She accepted, but didn’t eat. He spent the afternoon talking Tina’s ear off with questions about why a thunderbird was with her and pestered her to tell him how to capture one. When she refused to answer anything Gnarlak asked, he flew her back to his clan hoping to put pressure on her.

At first, the other beetles were excited to see a new informant. But when it became apparent that Tina wasn’t going to share any knowledge, they turned on her.

“She’s as dense as a brick!” the head of the clan, Henry, shouted at her. “She’s worthless!”

“And she’s incompetent!” a female beetle, Mary Lou, shouted. “She can’t even gather berries!”

Never mind Tina used to get all kinds of material for Queenie from all over the place and had to gather seeds and berries to survive. When Gnarlak heard those comments, he refused to talk her and swiftly dismissed her, which she wasn’t going to argue against.

 

She traveled to a field of daisies, where she collapsed. The beetles comments stayed in her mind and made her despondent. Was she truly as useless and stupid as the beetles said she was? Did Queenie think it too and was better off without her?

But the thoughts didn’t stop her from surviving. She spent the summer existing quietly. She made herself a bed of grass blades and hung it in tree to block the summer rain. She picked honeysuckles for food and drank river water.

 

Soon, the summer heat and autumn wind faded away. And Tina was out of resources. The trees and plants were all shrived and the water was frozen. Her clothes were torn from climbing and crafting. When the first winter snow fell, she almost froze to death. She traveled to a corn field during autumn, but now it was harvested and dried up. She struggled to find materials for a new thicker blankets, but hollow logs provided a good alternate shelter. Although, she knew she couldn’t survive the whole winter living in a log.

 

She was looking for a better log with less holes, when she came across a door in the ground of the cornfield. A warm glow escaped from the door, which drew Tina towards it. She knocked and waited while looking like a beggar. When a field mouse door opened, she simply asked for some corn. But when he saw her, he felt pity for her and invited her in for a meal. She was elated by the invitation, but she wasn’t one to let a good deed go unpaid. She offered and insisted to help prepare the meal. The field mouse, named Percival Graves, relented and let her dice and slice the ingredients.

After seeing Tina’s skills and finished eating dinner, he gave her another invitation, “You may stay with me for the winter, if you help me with organizing and bookkeeping my papers,” he waved over to piles of papers that aligned two whole walls.

“Bookkeeping?” she asked.

“I work for the mole down the lane. During the summer and autumn, I’m away doing field work. The winter and spring is the only time I can put everything away properly.”

After Mr. Graves explained more about the job, Tina readily agreed.

 

She and Mr. Graves cohabited comfortably and pleasantly. They switched who made meals everyday and spent the mornings and afternoon filing piles and piles of papers. In the evening and night, Mr. Graves whittled various sculptures while Tina read Mr. Graves’ library. 

 

One day, Mr. Graves said,“My boss is coming over soon to hand over more documents. I think you will get along with him well. But he’s blind, so his favorite pastime is talking, which gets in the way of work. Would you keep him busy with conversation for while?”

Tina wasn’t partially interested, but she agreed to help out Mr. Graves. The mole soon came dressed in a black velvet coat. When she met the mole for herself, she wasn’t too impressed. To be sure, Mr. Grindelwald the mole was quite learned and wealthy, but he spoke lowly of everything and everyone, including Mr. Graves. And he expected everyone to agree with him. There were a few times during his visit when Mr. Graves’ facial expression said the opposite of his verbal words.

 

More days passed with Tina helping Mr. Graves and distracting Mr. Grindelwald with conversations. At some point, Mr. Grindelwald wanted Tina to come live with him permanently. He was drawn by her smart conversation and survival skills. But he didn’t want to propose too soon, he was still a bit cautious.

After walking through the snow one too many times to visit Mr. Graves and Tina, Mr. Grindelwald dug a passage under the earth to connect the two homes. He gave Tina permission to walk wherever she wanted in the tunnel and throughout his home. But he warned her about a dead bird in the passage that fell while he dug a hole to the surface.

Tina didn’t use the passage until one day Mr. Graves needed her to deliver a note to Mr. Grindelwald. That was the first time she saw the dead bird. It was a handsome black swallow that wasn’t dead for long. The swallow’s beautiful wings were folded close to his body, his feet were hidden by his body feathers, and his head was tucked in his neck. A snow trail told Tina that Mr. Grindelwald must’ve shoved it aside while digging.

“What a miserable creature,” he said when he first told her about the dead bird, “with a pitiful existence to always die in the winter.”

Tina and Mr. Graves said nothing.

On a day when Mr. Grindelwald wanted to talk to Mr. Graves alone for once, she snuck down to visit the swallow. She kneeled down and stroked the feathers. She felt a pang of sympathy for the swallow’s family who must miss it, but didn’t know what happened to it.

Later that night, when Tina couldn’t sleep, she started weaving a hay blanket. She finished it before anyone woke up. She had just the right amount of time to tuck the bird in without anyone walking through the passage. On her way to the passage, she spotted some flowers Mr. Graves picked the previous day.

She tucked in the swallow with her blanket and placed a few flowers around in hopes to warm it up. As she set the last flower down near the swallow’s heart, she heard “thump, thump” coming from the swallow. She jumped back when she realized that it wasn’t dead, the bird was merely numbed! The blanket must’ve already started to warm it up.

In autumn, birds fly away to warmer places. If one happened to linger, the cold seizes and freezes it. Then the bird falls, as if it were dead, to be left covered in the falling snow.

 

The swallow woke up after a few days, and Tina was scared for the first time since separating from Queenie. The bird was much taller than her one inch height, but she mustered all of her courage together and put the leaves from her bed on the bird’s head to warm it up faster. Mr. Graves and Mr. Grindelwald were busy without her, so she stayed with the swallow until it woke up completely. He opened his eyes just a bit and looked at Tina. He understood that she must be his savior.

“I’m truly in your debt, maiden,” the swallow said. “May I know your name?”

“My name is Porpentina, but you may call me Tina. What is yours?”

“I am Credence. Thank you so much, Tina. Soon I’ll regain my strength and I’ll be able to fly next to the sun again.”

“Wait!” she, surprisingly loud, said. “You can’t! It’s still winter and if you go out now, you’ll freeze again. Stay here in the blankets for a while. I’ll take care of you.”

She then left Credence to fetch some food and water. After eating he thanked her again and admitted that one of his wings were injured by a thorn, which is why he was left behind by his family. He couldn’t fly fast enough to make it to a warmer place, so he sent his sisters ahead of him to give them the best chance to survive. But he didn’t remember much else up until meeting Tina.

 

She spent whatever time she could with Credence for the rest of the winter. Mr. Grindelwald had no idea, but Tina suspected Mr. Graves knew and kept a blind eye.

 

Spring came too fast for Tina’s liking. The earth warmed up and Credence had to say farewell. Before Credence left, however, he asked her if she wanted to go with him. She could sit on his back and see the world from above. Tina was drawn to accept, but she knew Mr. Graves would miss her and be disappointed in her manner of leaving. So Tina said, “I can’t.”

“Farewell, Tina,” Credence said and flew towards the sunshine.

Tina watched him until he disappeared from her view. She teared up seeing a dear friend leave.

She knew she wouldn’t be able leave Mr. Graves’ soon. The corn stalks around the home grew into the air and created a forest for Tina to get lost.

Moments after Credence’s departure, she noted Mr. Graves quietly coming up to her. When she turned to him, his face was long while he spoke, “Mr. Grindelwald is proposing marriage to you, Tina. He told me non stop all winter of his intention, but I couldn’t stop him. And I can’t prolong him any longer. I’m so sorry I couldn’t do more.”

“Have you accepted on my behalf?” she worriedly asked.

“No, I could never do that, but he asked me to start wedding preparation.”

Part of Tina wanted to yell at Mr. Graves for not telling her about Mr. Grindelwald’s intentions, but she knew how timidly Mr. Graves acted around Mr. Grindelwald. And he looked sincerely apologetic for not preventing the proposal.

“It’s a good thing,” Mr. Graves tried to comfort her. “You’ll want for nothing as his wife.”

And so, Tina reluctantly agreed to the marriage.

 

Spring and summer went on with Tina, Mr. Graves, and four hired spiders weaving, spindling, and knitting for the impeding wedding. Every evening, Mr. Grindelwald visited Tina and spoke of nothing but the wedding.

Once again, Tina felt despondent. She missed Queenie and Credence’s company more than ever. During her free time, she crept outside to see the sun rise or set. She felt the breeze on her cheeks and for a small moment, she was happy. The beautiful and bright scenes reminded her of Queenie, which made Tina miss her even more.

Sometimes she wished Credence would return, but she knew he had family to take care first before he even thought about coming back for her. He probably met up with his sisters far, far away from here.

 

When autumn arrived, Tina’s dress was finished and Mr. Graves told her the wedding date was in four weeks. On the inside, Tina wept. On the outside, she simply asked if there was anything they could do to stop it.

“I’m afraid not,” Mr. Graves avoided her eyes, “but it’s truly a good thing. He’s well off and you couldn’t be luckier with this good fortune.”

Tina wasn’t sure if he trying to convince her or himself.

So the wedding day was set. Tina, however, only saw it as the day she gets locked away from the sun, Credence, Mr. Graves, and the chance of seeing Queenie.

 

She visited the passage where Credence once laid. She started to apologize for disappearing from Queenie and said farewell. Once she finished, a “tweet, tweet” came from above. She looked up and saw Credence flying nearby. As soon as he saw her, he eagerly flew down to meet her.

She listened to his stories about his sisters, and she in turn told him her grievance about her impeding marriage.

“Winter is coming soon,” he said after she finished, “and I’m flying home far, far away from here. Will you come with me? You can sit on my back and I’ll fly you wherever you want in the spring. Over the mountains, fields with blooming flowers with greater beauty, or where it’s summer always. You saved my life when I laid frozen in this dark passage, it’s only fair I save you from this passage in return.”

“Yes, I’ll come with you,” Tina said. Before she left with Credence, she wrote a note to Mr. Graves explaining how she was going to make her way back to Queenie. She hoped he understood and wouldn’t be in too much trouble with Mr. Grindelwald.

She walked back to Credence and tied herself to his strongest feather. He flew over the forest and sea. They visited mountain tops where Tina almost froze if it weren’t for her hiding in his feathers. But she kept her head uncovered throughout it all to admire the wonderful land.

 

Right as winter arrived, Credence landed in front of a blue lake. The lake was surrounded with trees and on one edge was a white marble palace. Vines wrapped around the pillars and on top were many swallow nests.

“This is my home,” Credence explained. “We’ll stay here for the winter before going to Queenie. You may choose a flower for yourself now. You’ll have almost everything you wish to make you happy,” he flew over all the flowers hidden on the pillars for Tina to view.

In the end, she picked a great large beautiful white flower. All she was expecting was a comfortable bed, but to her shock, sitting in the middle of the flower was a man. And he was just as small as she was! He had reddish brown hair with blue eyes. He had a modest golden crown on his head and wings on his back.

All the flowers within the marble palace hosted a tiny man or woman. And this man was the king of them all.

“Oh, how wonderful!” Tina whispered to Credence. She never expected to meet this many people her size.

The flower king was nervous at the sight of Credence, but ultimately he approached the giant out of curiosity. When Tina landed on the flower, he moved away from her. He watched her as if she was about to attack him, which she almost did with a hug.

 

Tina spent the rest of her second winter away from Queenie getting to know the flower king, Newt. Although initially uneasy, they bonded over their friendships with creatures and critters. Tina formally introduced Credence to Newt and told him of Mr. Graves. In turn, Newt introduced her to Pickett and Dougal, a bowtruckle and demiguise respectively. They also met Credence’s younger sisters, Modesty and Chasity, both of whom were very nice if a bit shy.

 

Their friendships blossomed and when spring arrived, Tina was sad to say farewell to her new friends, but Queenie must be completely heartbroken after two years of separation.

Tina and Newt said farewell on the first day of spring. Before she and Credence departed, the other fairies came out and gifted Tina a pair of wings of her own. It was a thank you gift from everyone for making their King smile and happy. Newt blushed when he understood how transparent everyone saw him.

Right as they were about to leave, she and Newt promised to see each other again soon.

Tina and Credence flew for a few days with as little stops as possible before she spotted Queenie’s home. She landed on the windowsill and saw Queenie melancholily sewing a small dress that was her size.She flew in through an open window and cried, “Queenie!”

“Teenie?” she turned around with tears in her eyes.

“Queenie!” Tina flew right into Queenie’s neck and wrapped her arms around her. And Queenie let out a loud cry of relief while patting Teenie on the back. Finally after two years of searching and struggling to keep hope, her Teenie finally returned home!

Credence sat on the windowsill and was happy that his friend had returned home. When Queenie saw him, she invited him inside to stay for a while. He didn’t want to interfere with their reunion, but both maidens insisted.

The three spent the rest of the day telling their story of the last two years. Tina was relieved, and surprised, that Queenie wasn’t as lonely as she believed. Somehow, Queenie got mixed up with a frog, who was really a prince. They met a year and half ago and were engaged. But Queenie made her prince Jacob promise to not have the wedding until Teenie came home. While Tina was honored by Queenie’s promise, she berated her for holding back on her happiness on the small hope that she’d return.

Queenie laughed and said, “My happiness isn’t complete without you Teenie!”

For the second time in a day, Tina openly wept of happiness.

The two ended their day with promises to invite all of their new friends for a meal. But for now, the two were happy to be together once again and looked forward to a bright future. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m not sure why, but I have two more ideas for fairytale AU with FBAWTFT characters. One is Queenie’s side of the story mentioned at the end with Jacob. The other is a Twelve Dancing Princesses AU with the Goldstein sisters and other female Harry Potter characters. If people want them, please tell me and I’ll write them as soon as I can.


	2. The 12 Princesses of Burrows

Long, long, long, ago in a flourishing kingdom of Burrows, King Arthur Weasley had a problem.

He and his wife, Molly, have been married many years and had many wonderful daughters. All of whom couldn’t be more different from each other. There was the eldest: charismatic, and sharp Seraphina, the ambitious, but slight reckless Tina, the kind and empathic Queenie, the clumsily spirited Dora, the blunt and helpful Fleur, the diligently outgoing Angelina, the emotional scholar Cho, the bubbly and conscious Hannah, the cleverly determined Hermione, the tough loving Ginny, the curious researcher Luna, and the outspoke and stubborn Astoria.

The royal family loved each dearly, but the king and queen suspected their daughters of hiding an important secret. Each morning, new dancing shoes were delivered to the castle because their shoes were found to be quite worn as if they had been dancing all night.

And this was the source of the king’s problem. None of his daughters would admit to where and what they were doing. He and his wife asked their daughters many times after many, many shoes were delivered. The princesses, however, gave contradicting and unsatisfactory answers.

“I’m keeping the others safe, and that should be enough, regardless of my methods,” said Seraphina cooly as she read over court minutes.

“…I’m doing psychical training,” said Tina. It wasn’t a secret in the kingdom that the second eldest princess wanted to be an investigator.

“Oh! It’s wonderful!” clapped Queenie enthusiastically. But when asked what was so wonderful, she claimed needing to do some ‘ladies things’ and left immediately.

“Ah, sorry for worrying you,” said Dora as she was dying her hair her latest pick of color and left it at that.

“It’s none of your business,” said Fleur bluntly before leaving to meet up with Queenie.

Angelina and Ginny were never found off the Quidditch pitch, so the king, queen, and princesses yelled their conversation.

“I’m just busy! There aren’t enough hours in the day to everything!” Angelina flew over their heads.

“I’m sorry, won’t happen again!” yelled Ginny at the same time.

Cho sometimes cried and ran away, and other times she asked for forgiveness.

Hannah would shake her head and run off to find Cho, Dora, or Astoria.

Hermione barely looked up from reading her book of the day, “I’m just helping out some people.”

“Ah yes…” Luna rocked side to side, “what an intriguing mystery…” Her eyes wandered around to stare at something in the distance.

Astoria just glared at anyone who approached the subject to her. And everyone knew better than to push the youngest princess when she didn’t want to talk.

Not getting any closer to the truth, Arthur positioned more guards in front of their chambers. But when it was reported that there was nothing out of the ordinary, no one left or made noise, and the shoes still had holes in the morning, Arthur and Molly started to think more drastically. They trusted their daughters, but it was be coming an issue. Their next idea was to lock their chamber. Yet, the shoes continued to be worn each morning. Next, Arthur ordered maids to stay in the locked room with the princesses. The maids, however, always fell asleep and no one got closer to solving the mystery.

So Arthur made this mystery known to all the lands. If any person could discover the secret and find where and what the princesses did each night to wear out their shoes, they could marry any one of the princesses and become king. But they only had three days and three nights. Failures would be rejected from the castle and never allowed another attempt.

Many princes, noblemen, and knights stayed at the castle for three days and three nights, only to be turned out in the end.

As it happened, a pair of traveling naturalist were visiting Burrows and were intrigued by the magical mystery of the twelve princesses. An elder woman told them the tale and asked them if they would solve it.

The elder naturalist, Newt, replied, “I would love to, but I can’t spend a night away from my creatures.” He gestured to his noisy case.

“I could spend the night in the princesses’ chambers,” offered the younger, Neville.

“I do not foresee this task as challenging for you,”said the elder woman. “Take care not to drink any wine offered to you by any of the princesses in the evening, and soon after, pretend to fall asleep,” she then gave him a cloak from her raggedy bag. “As soon as you don this cloak, you will become invisible. You then will be able to follow the princesses wherever they go.”

With the advice, the naturalist were determined to make their way to the castle.

 

When they arrived, the latest prince was being kicked out by a servant, “You are hereby are banned from the castle of King Arthur and Queen Molly of Burrows.”

“And good riddance!” yelled the prince as the gates were closed on him. “Who would want to marry any of your princesses!”

The prince continued to yell so loud that some guards came out and dragged him away far from the castle.

Newt and Neville nervously looked at each other. They haven’t heard anything of princesses before coming, but they couldn’t possibly be as troublesome as the yelling prince made them out to be. Withholding judgement, the two naturalist made their way to the throne room. But just as they were about to meet the king and queen, Newt noticed his case was open.

“Uh oh,” he closed his case and looked around the corridor, “I think the niffler escaped.”

“Again?” asked Neville exasperatedly. “In the castle?”

“He was in the case when we came in, so he must be,” he looked all around the furniture and tapestry. “I need to find him.”

“Right now? We’re about to meet the king and queen.”

“I’m sorry Nev, I need to find him. I can’t let him steal anything, or else we'll be accused as a thieves.”

“What should I do about the king and queen?” Neville started to perspire. “I can’t meet them by myself!”

“You’ll be fine, Nev. You’ll charm the king and queen just by yourself,” Newt walked back to where they came from. “Be confident, my friend!” yelled he, from around the corner.

Neville, feeling slightly abandoned, shakily walked into the throne room. At the opposite end of the long, great room sat the king and queen. A young woman with dark skin and blonde hair stool next to the Queen. She was one of the princesses, Neville concluded.

“Gr-greetings Your Majesties and Your Highness,” he bowed.

“So you wish to solve the mystery of our daughters?” asked the king. The king wasn’t as scary as Neville imagined royalty. He was fairly tall and thin, but his face was framed by glasses and he had a jolly smile. The queen, on the other hand, appeared to be sizing him up. But she had a very matronly air around her.Princess Seraphina scared Neville the most. She towered over him and he felt naked in front of her.

“Y-yes…your majesty. My companion and I believe we can solve the mystery,” said he.

“What are your names?” asked the queen kindly.

“N-neville, your majesty, I’m a botanist. My traveling companion is a zoologist named Newt.”

The royals all arched their eyebrows perfectly at the same time. Neville and Newt were the first suitors that weren’t of noble birth or knighted.

Seraphina could sense her parents reservations. A botanist and zoologist certainly weren’t the expected ones to be in line for king. But after seeing numerous blue bloods and knights fail for months, she figured they couldn’t do any worse.

“Let them try, mother, father. All of the princes and knights have been quite pathetic so far,” said she.

“That is true, dear,” said the queen to her husband.

“Very well,” the king turned to him, “Mister Neville, you and your companion have three days and three nights to solve how and why the princesses’,” he glanced over to his daughter, “shoes are worn after every night. You both shall dine with us for meals and one of you will sleep in the princesses chambers. On the morning of the forth day, we will summon you to produce evidence of the mystery. If you fail in this task, you will be banished from the castle for life. Do you understand?”

“Yes, you majesty,” said Neville meekly.

“Very well,” said the king, “Dobby, here,” he waved over to a servant in the corner,” will take your things and show you the grounds. We will see you at dinner.”

Neville bowed again and walked over to bat-like man and followed hime out of the throne room.

As soon as Neville left the room, Seraphina walked as fast as she could to her sisters waiting in the gardens.

She entered the garden's hedge maze and automatically walked to the middle. She was happy to see her sister and couldn’t wait to deliver the news. For once, the suitors seemed interesting. She did a headcount and was surprised to see Tina missing. If Luna was missing too, she’d expect nothing less. But Luna was sitting with Ginny and Hermione. She’d have to find Tina later and tell her. In the meantime, she told her sisters of the nervous botanist and mysterious zoologist.

 

In another part of the castle, Newt finally spotted his niffler in a grand dinning hall. His niffler was busy picking up silver utensils when he spotted his human. The niffler made a run for it towards the balcony and Newt was quick to follow.

The niffler made a sharp turn and hid in a flower pot. He watched his human run out behind him and crash into another human.

“Mercy Lewis!" yelped Princess Tina, who was reading on the balcony bench. She reflectively she got up and turned to face her attacker, who was still recovering from the fall. He was almost as tall as she was when he stood up.

Newt looked at the person he crashed into and started to apologize profusely, “Are you hurt?” Her brown hair was short, but the slight wind still brushed it in front of her face. Her book had fallen out of her hand, but she was still standing.

“I’m fine,” said she. “What were you doing running out onto the balcony?”

“I… ah…” he looked around her for a furry little body, “I lost a…pet… of mine. I think he went out here.

“A pet?” said she with an incredulous tone. “You brought an creature into the castle.”

“My apologizes, miss,” he looked at her face, but not her eyes. He hadn’t recognized the young woman as the second eldest princess. Not that she held it against him, she was wearing her investigation outfit of trousers and a loose fitting blouse, a far cry from her public dresses.

“It’s fine,” said she. “What did you lose?”

“Ah…” he looked up to her brown eyes, “my niffler got out.”

“Niffler?”

“It’s a…uh…small creature that’s attracted to shiny objects,” they both turned to the dinning hall and saw all the shiny ornaments gleaning in the sunlight.

“I see…” started she, “may I help you, Mister…”

“Newt.”

“Mister…Newt," she smiled when saying his name, as if she’s sharing a private joke with herself.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a grey blur going back into the dinning hall, “There he is!” he ran without asking his companion’s name.

And so the chase for the niffler began.

 

Neville finished unpacking and wandered the castle in search for Newt. They needed to talk about their plans. Dobby explained that there was only one extra bed in the princesses’ chambers, so the maids were preparing an extra bedroom.

He checked most of the halls with shiny decorations, but no sign of the niffler or Newt. He walked outside to search the gardens. He didn’t see Newt, but he saw two princesses. The younger one was blonde with a bright smile on her face, while the elder one had pink hair and a devious smile. They fit the description Dobby told him of Princess Dora and Hannah. And they were huddling around something Neville couldn’t see.

He let out a sigh of relief that the princesses weren’t as odd as that prince made them out. They seemed perfectly normal. He watched them for a few moments before he would be lingering for too long. He had walked around a corner when he heard fast feet behind him. He turned around and saw the two princesses running at him.

“Help!” yelled Dora. She was only a few steps ahead of her sister, but she stumbled over something. Her sister helped her steady once again.

“They’re right behind us!” yelled Princess Hannah. Despite their wild cries, they were smiling.

“Wha…?”Neville barely reacted when Princess Dora ran past and Princess Hannah stopped in front of him.

“Can you stall them, please?” said she hastily and ran after her sister to hide.

When Neville looked where the princesses came from, he saw young Princess Astoria and Princess Ginny coming from behind the hedge.

“Did you see where our sisters went?” demanded the younger princess.

“Uh…” Neville froze under the princess’ sharp brown eyes.

“Two girls just ran in this direction, did you see them?” repeated Princess Ginny, but with more patience.

“I think…they…uh…went that way,” he pointed in the opposite directions he saw the others ran.

The young princess immediately ran away, while the older thanked him before running after her sisters.

Bushes rustling told him that Dora and Hannah were coming out of hiding.

“Thank you so much,” Princess Hannah walked up to him. It was the first time Neville saw a princess up close. Princess Hannah’s blonde hair was partly braided with the rest of her hair down. She was a bit shorter than him, so eye contact was easy between them. Her pink checks were flushed. And she had a wide smile on her face. Unconsciously, his own checks redden as they stood in the gardens.

“I’m happy to help,” said he finally, perhaps a bit breathlessly.

“Oh,” she tilted her head and a flash of recognition appeared on her face, “you’re one of the newest suitor, right?"

“Uh… I am. My name is Neville, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness,” he gave her a small bow, which caused her to giggle.

“Call me Hannah,” she smiled at him. He felt his heartbeat quicken.

“Very well… Ha-Hannah,” stuttered he. He was sure addressing a royal so informally was breaking some code of conduct. But she had gave her permission, which is all that mattered to Neville.

“Hannah, come on! Gin is bound to double back soon!” called Princess Dora from farther down the garden.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” Hannah ran towards her sister.

Neville stared after her in a trance, which was interrupted when Newt came up to him.

“Hello? You there?” Newt waved his hand in front of his eyes.

“There you are,” sighed Neville. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Did you find the niffler?”

“I did, thanks to the assistance of a woman who knew the way around the castle,” Newt lifted up his case to prove that it was firmly closed. “How did the meeting with the king and queen go?”

“Their majesties seemed reluctant to accept us as a suitor,” Neville bashfully recounted, “but a princess, who I believe was the eldest, spoke on our behalf.”

“That’s great!” Newt beamed at him. “You’ve already got some approval a princess.”

“I think she was more interested in how I’d compare to the other suitors,” said Neville bluntly. “Anyways, we need to figure out where you’ll be sleeping. There’s only one bed in the princesses’ chambers, and another room is there's another whole room being prepared."

“Ah,” Newt saw the problem. He did most of his care taking of the animals and their environments at night, so the case needed to be with him. But the cloak the elder woman gave him was in the case, as it was the only safe place for it. Neville needed the case in the princesses’ chambers for the cloak, but it would look odd if Newt wasn’t in his room at night. “What could we do? You could visit me before turning in for the night, but going into the chambers with my case, might be odd.”

“Is it possible for you to leave dinner early? You could take care of the creatures and the case before the princesses return to their chambers,” Neville started.

“And I could leave the case with you. You do know how to take care of it in an emergency, right?”

“I still have the notes you gave,” Neville smiled. They were one step closer to solving the mystery.

And just in time. Dobby came up to them from the castle and announced dinner was starting.

The naturalists followed the servant into the grand dinning hall that Newt was in earlier. The king and queen were at the head of the table with six princesses and an empty seat on each side. Neville smiled when he saw Hannah and took a seat near her. Newt, on the other hand, froze when he saw the woman that helped him earlier was a princess. He mentally scolded him for not asking her name during any point of their adventure. And here he thought she was a servant, or visitor. He stiffly walked to the seat next to her.

After awkwardly reintroducing themselves, they fell into a quiet and comfortable conversation. Seraphina and Queenie often pulled them into the bigger group’s conversation. Neville, on the other end of the table, was enthusiastically explaining his work to Hannah, who solely focused on him throughout the whole dinner.

Dinner went unexpectedly smooth and Newt was sorry to leave the conversation with Tina. But the plan had to get set in motion. When there was a break between courses, Newt excused himself with a hopefully plausible reason.

After dinner, Neville and the princesses walked to their bed chambers. He almost yelped when he saw Newt sneaking away from the chambers, but fortunately none of the princesses saw anything.

And so, the princesses, with the addition of Neville, went through their nightly routine. Hermione and Fleur knitted by the window. Tina and Luna were pouring over papers for some upcoming investigation of Tina's. Seraphina and Astoria were reading on their beds respectively. Dora, Ginny, and Angelina were planning an upcoming Quidditch tournament. Queenie and Cho snuck out at some point to fetch something. And Hannah was taking care of her plants, which she gladly shared with Neville.

Queenie and Cho came back much later with more food and some wine. And Neville learned that all the princesses had a major sweet tooth, which their parents tried to curb with very little luck.

“Would you like some wine?” asked Hannah as she paused in her care taking.

“If there’s enough,” agreed Neville bashfully.

“Of course there’s enough,” Hannah gathered two goblets for them.

“Thank you,” Neville accepted the drink. They continued to tend to the plants.

As time went on, Neville felt the eyes of more and more princesses on him. He faked a yawn, to the best of his ability, and announced to Hannah that he would turn in for the night. Hannah, in turn, promised that she and the others wouldn’t be too loud. He laid down on the spare bed and pretended to be in a deep sleep.

“You didn’t put too much of the potion in the drink, right?” asked Hannah to Queenie and Cho.

“Of course not dearest,” smiled Queenie softly. “He’s a bit thinner than the others, so we lessen the dose, which might be why it took him longer to fall asleep.”

“Thank you,” replied Hannah.

“Now, let’s move along,” clapped Queenie softly, “we shouldn’t keep them waiting!”

The twelve princesses changed out of their nightdressed into their best dresses. Once everyone was finished, Hannah moved aside her many plants and knocked on the post of her bed three times. Her bed fell into the floor to reveal a staircase leading to a glowing place. One by one, the princesses climbed down the staircase. Once the last one, Tina, walked down, the bed raised back into place and returned to normal.

Neville waited a moment before springing upright. He never thought knowing how to fake drinking would come in handy. Checking that the princesses weren’t going to come back so soon, he walked to the bed surrounded by plants. He knocked on Hannah’s bed post three times and waited. Nothing happened. He tried again three more times. But nothing as magical as the bed turning into a staircase leading to another world happened.

He sighed and lamented that he wasted a night to find out the truth. At least he knew how the princesses left their chambers without notifying anyone.

After trying the bed post one more time, Neville went back to his bed and actually fell asleep.

Neville spent the next morning with Hannah in the garden discusssing differnt exocitc species they've seen. At some point, they wandered over to the Quidditch pitch, where they saw Angelina and Ginny challenging a group of local flyers to a game of Quidditch. Neville and Hannah decided to stay and cheer on the two flying princesses.

Meanwhile, Newt stowed away to a quiet corner of the gardens to let out some of his creatures. Unfortunately, some of the louder creatures attracted some attention. Tina and Luna were investigating the nearby pond for some Freshwater Plimpies and heard Newt's Fwooper's chatter. They put aside their own investigation to search for the source of the noise. That's when they found Newt surrounded with many magnificent creatures. Luna rushed over to him and bombarded him with wild questions about each and every animal. Newt, overwhelmed a first, took the questioning in stride and got more and more enthusiastic as well. Tina stood aside observing everything and asked a question of her own every now and then.

By lunchitme, Luna roped Newt into joining them in the investigation. After Luna explained the fantastical side of what they were searching for, Tina explained the more practical points of their plans.

All in all, the princesses, Neville, and Newt spent a wonderful day with each other. Dinner came and went in a similar fashion. And like the night before, Newt excused himself before everyone else. This time, he elabroated he needed to take care of his animals before he sleeps.

The events after dinner were also very similar. Queenie and Cho snuck out and returned with desserts and wine. Once again, he was offered wine, but by Angelina, which he avoided to drink.

He faked sleep and waited for Hannah to knock on her bed post. He waited for Tina to turn her back on him before quietly grabbing the invisibility cloak and followed them down into the glowing place.

Neville tried to tread carefully after Tina, but he accidently brushed Tina's hand going down the stairs, which caused her to jump back and stare right at him. He stopped and held his breath for as long as he could.

"Tina?" Hermione stopped and turned around as well. "Are you all right?"

"Uh, just fine. It just felt like someone was behind me."

"It's fine," said Fleur, "There's no one there."

"If you say so," she stared at the spot where Neville stood for a moment more before moving on.

Neville waited a few moments before walking again.

Finally, they all stepped down from the stairs to cross into a forest that gleamed in the moonlight. Neville was temporarily transfixed by the diamond leaves. He knew he needed proof, and a diamond leaves were perfect. He picked three branches, but the snapping got Tina and Queenie's attention.

"You heard that too, right?" asked Tina.

"I did. You're right, something is odd," Queenie watched the area around Neville. It was uncanny how similar these two looked when focused, noted Neville.

"Aren't you two just being paraniod?" said Cho. "We keep going soon, or else Percival might glare Jacob into putty."

"Oh, all right," Queenie ran ahead to match paces with Hannah and Cho in the front. Tina met Seraphina's eyes and knew that she would keep an eye and ear out for anything else weird as well.

They walked a bit farther into the gorgeous forest before coming to a lakeshore. And in front stood ten handsome men, who were waiting for the princesses.

Percival, who was indeed intensely staring at Jacob, looked away and saw them coming, "You've finally arrived."

"No need to be impatient," Seraphina walked to his side.

Jacob, now freed from Percival's attention, bowed to everyone, "Hello everyone."

"Jacob!" Queenie rushed and attacked him with a fierce hug, which was gladly reciprocated. 

"Thank goodness you're here," Cedric approached Cho. "I think you're the only ones that stop Harry, Ron, and Draco from doing stupid thing.

"What were you about to do?" Ginny methodically exasperated asked Harry.

"Just a boat race around the lake," Harry sheepishly avoided her eyes.

"That's not the foolish part," Remus slyly said. 

"We were going to swim and push the boat around…"

"Draco!" 

"Ronald!" yelled Hermione and Astoria at the same time. Both of their partners flinched. 

"It's not like we actually went through it!" said Ron in his defense. 

"And as you can see, we're still dry," said Draco.

Astoria sighed before dragging her partner. Hermione just shook her head. 

"So are we just going to stand here all night?" asked Angelina. "Or are you going to sweep us off our feet?"

"My lady," George bowed deeply, "with yourpermission, I would love to escort you through a night of full of wonder and joy."

The two giggled at their own inside jokes while the others settled into a boat with their partners.

Neville noticed that Tina and Hannah didn't have a dance partner, so they shared a boat with Luna and her parter, Rolf. Neville snuck onto the boat with Cho and her partner, Cedric.

The boats floated towards a castle on the other side of the lake. Music of all kinds flowed out of the doors and windows. When they entered the castle, the princessses eagerly pulled their partners into the ballroom. 

Princess Seraphina and Queenie danced to similar music, fast and a lot of horns, but their styles couldn't be any more different. Seraphina and Percival danced as if it was competition for the lead. They tried to one up each other and catch the other off guard. Queenie and Jacob, however, danced in sync and their improvisations didn't disturb their smooth dancing. They just knew each other well enough. 

Dora and Remus, Fleur and Bill, and Luna and Rolf danced to quick tempo music as well, but will less improvisation. Cho and Cedric and Astoria and Draco danced to much more traditional music, the kind they heard at balls. The air around these two couples were very intimate and romantic. Angelina and George, Ginny and Harry, and Hermione and Ron didn't really dance any particular style. For the most part, they dance to the tempo of whatever music was playing.

Neville watched them dancing from the banquet table on the edge of the room. When he saw the solid golden cup, he took it for more evidence. He felt like Newt's niffler, who should never ever be allowed down here. He was sure Newt would go mad trying to find it in this world. 

Tina and Hannah didn't dance as much as their sisters. Hannah got asked a few times by Cedric and Remus when their princesses need a drink. While Percival and Jacob asked Tina for a dance, which she accepted, but it was always a short dance. For the remaining time, the unpartner sisters stayed close to each other.

 

The princesses danced until the clock stroke three, which coincided with their shoes got worn out. The partners rowed the princesses back over the lake. Neville rode in the same boat as Ginny and Harry. 

When the boats got to the forest, Neville ran up the stairs ahead of the princesses and laid down on his bed. He was "snoring" when the princesses came up from the other world and checked on him.

"Still asleep," Ginny whispered. 

 

The next day after breakfast, Neville pulled Newt aside and told him everything he saw and showed the diamond leaves and golden cup. 

"You should've seen it Newt," sighed Neville dreamily. "The forest was glimmering and the lake was perfectly clear. There were these instruments that played music by themselves. And even more, the princesses were dancing at least three differnt types of dances with different music, but the music never interfered with each other."

"Amazing!" said Newt breathlessly. "Who would've thought the princesses visited a magical castle every night."

"I almost didn't believe it when I first saw it. It almost seemed too perfect."

"You should confirm this again tonight."

"All right."

 

Neville and Newt had free time for the rest of the day. 

Newt went exploring the castle. He found Tina, Queenie, and Ginny in the kitchens baking. They just finished their first batch when Newt came in, and they readily invited him to join. After Queenie finished her second batch, with minimal help from notoriously bad baker Tina and Newt and aggressive mixer Ginny, she sent them away in hopes of finding the other princesses to give the remaining sweets. Once they finished giving out baked goods, Newt introduced Tina to some more of his animals. Pickett was the friendliest and sat on Tina's shoulder for the rest of the day, much to Tina's amusment and Newt's embarrassment. 

Neville spent the day in the library with Hannah, Hermione, and Luna. Hannah and Luna were playing Exploding Snap with Hermione reading in the corner. Neville joined them, and then convinced Hermione to join as well.

She promised only one game, but spent the whole afternoon with them playing various games. 

Dinner was similar to the previous nights. Newt excused himself before the last course to care for animals. Tina, Queenie, and Luna asked if they could come along, but Newt had to regretfully decline them. 

And like the nights before, a princess, Ginny tonight, offered Neville wine, which he didn't drink a drop of, and Neville pretended to sleep. The princesses descended down into the magical world unknowingly with Neville.

One by one, the princesses and their partner began dancing the night away. 

Some hours later, Dora excused herself from Remus and left him with Jacob. She approached Hannah and slid into the seat next to her with a knowing smile, "So… has our plant-loving sister finally taken interest in another person."

Hannah blushed at the thought of Neville, "Wh-what makes you say that?"

"Nothing really… Just the fact that you let him help you with your plants, which you won't even let us touch them."

Hannah's face turned bright red, "We-well… what about Tina?" they looked over to their elder sister doing some fast, complicated dance with Percival. "She's spent all her time with the other suitor as well."

"Yes, but Tina at least take some interest in people if they're part of her investigations. You, on the other hand, little sister, rather hide in the garden whenever a suitor comes," she paused to look at her sister. "So what makes this one different?"

Hannah stiffened. She struggled to start a sentence a few time before stuttering a response, "We-well…he's…just…very…lively…H-he talks about plants in such a… caring way. It's hard not to pay attention to him."

Dora gave Hannah a soft smile and wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

"I'm sorry if it seemed like I was giving you a hard time. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with this suitor."

"You think he might actually find out about this place?"

"Well, they're both more thoughtful than the previous suitors. At least this time, thet seem to have a plan."

"What makes you think that?"

"Surely you've noticed Newt leaving dinner early. He must be preparing for something."

"Didn't he say he needed to take care of his animals?"

"So he says," said Dora mysteriously. "But you seem happy with Neville, so I glad for your sake if they ends up being the one discovering this place."

If it was even possible, Hannah's face turned redder, "Ah…Th-thanks, Dora."

"No problem," she beamed. "You should be relieved that Sera didn't enforce her 'as the eldest sister' rule, or else she'd be talking to you."

Hannah briefly imagined that conversation. As much as she loved her eldest sister, Sera could be too scarcastic at times. 

"Are you going to talk to Tina too?" she knew her sisters wouldn't pass up the opportunty to tease their straightlace sister. 

"Oh no, I'm leaving that to Queenie."

They looked across the room and saw Queenie hopping in place and clapping while Tina's face got redder and redder, not unlike Hannah's, and glared at Queenie. Her eyes met Hannah's and they shared a look of solitary. 

 

At the stroke of three, the princesses said farewell to their partners and went back to their chambers. Again, Neville ran ahead of them to fake sleep before they came back. 

When Hannah saw him, she felt a pang of disapointment that he hadn't seen their other world. Nevertheless, the princesses changed into their night clothes and went to sleep. 

 

The next morning, the king and queen summoned their daughters and the two suitors to the throne room. It was time for Neville and Newt to explain the truth behind the mystery. Neville retold everything he saw while Newt presented the three diamond branches of leaves and golden cup. When they saw the broke branches, a look of understand flashed across Tina and Queenie's face.

When King Arthur asked where they danced at night, Neville said, "In a castle underground with ten princes."

The monarchs then turned to their daughters 

"Is what these gentlemen true?" asked the king.

"An underground castle?" first spoke Angelina. "There's no way something like that could be under—"

"We're so sorry!" Cho's nerves had gotten the best of her. "We didn't mean for this to go on for as long as it did, but we can't always have a ball and it was the only time we could see our partners."

"Seraphina!" the queen turned to her eldest. "How could you let your sisters met ten men unescorted for months!"

"Mother," said she firmly, "I never would've let my sisters meet these men for so long unless I thought them trustworthy."

"And how do you know they are trustworthy?"

"I found out who they were outside of castle," said Seraphina clearly, much to her sisters' surprise. Expect Tina and Dora, who helped her reasearch each men.

"You mean they're all somewhere around the world?" Fleur's eyes widen.

"Yes. They're all from the kingdom of Hogwarts," said Seraphina.

"Do we know them?" asked the king.

"Mister Jacob is a baker, Mister Remus is a scholar at the kingdom's univeristy, Misters George and Ron are shopkeepers. Misters Harry, Bill,and Cedric are members of the kingdom's defense force. Prince Draco is the royal present," listed Seraphina.

"That's only nine…" 

"She's leaving out Mister Percival," said Tina, "who's one of the twelve council members."

"I see," the king was shocked that his youngest had already met Prince Draco. He and Molly were planning on introducing the when they got older, but if they've already met and like each other, it could be a very good thing in the future. "Would it be fair to assume that all of you would like to marry these men?"

"Oh, please father?" Hermione stepped forward. "They're all truly good men."

"Don't worry, dearest," said the king calmly, "we won't seperate you from your partners, but it is still early for some of you to marry," he looked at Astoria, Luna, and Ginny. "For now, you'll be engaged."

"I hope you aren't offended by our daughters choices," the queen turned to Newt and Neville, who just watched from the sides.

"Of course not, Your Majesty," spoke Neville for the two of them. "Their Highnesses were very happy dancing with their partners last night, we couldn't interrupt that."

"Don't worry, mother," smiled Queenie slyly, "I think they intend to ask the two of us without a dance partner." She nudged Tina, who was next to her. 

"Is that so?" asked the king.

The two naturalist blushed at their feelings being revealed in front a royal audience.

"I-I wo-would like to ask for Han-Hannah's hand," said Neville.

"A-and with Ti-Tina's permission, I would like to co-court her," said Newt.

"Court? You don't intend to marry?" the king raised his eyebrows.

"I'm leaving for an excursion very soon, and it would be unfair for me to ask for her to marry without getting to know me," said Newt honetly. 

"Then, I will leave that decision for Tina and you to discuss," said the king compassionately. 

The king and queen thanked Neville and Newt for solving the mystery. They also promised their daughters to invite their partners to castle for a visit very soon.

After the king and queen dismissed everyone, Hannah brought Neville to the library for him to get to know her elder sisters. Tina, on the other hand, lead Newt through the hedge maze for some privacy. She asked about Newt's trip and for how long he'd be gone. He didn't know at the moment, but for at least a year. And Tina, taking a rare risk, asked if she could come along.

"What about becoming an investigator?" Newt recalled that she said her parents and minister of security recently agreed to let her take the investigation examination.

"It would be nice to work in my own kingdom, but I intend to be an investigator for anyone no matter who they are. And I could work wherever."

"Are you sure?" asked Newt.

"Yes," said she firmly. 

"We-well then…will you, Tina, allow me to court you during our travels with the intentions of marrying when we return to your kingdom?"

"Of course."

 

Neville and Newt refused the crown, so Seraphina was the heir of the thone. And a few months later, Queenie and Jacob were the first to marry. The other couples, who were old enough, married soon after. Seraphina and Percival became engaged, but never married. When asked about it, they said they were better friends than lovers, but stayed engaged for convenience. 

After their wedding, Neville, with the blessings of the king and queen, opened an apothecary, where he and Hannah lived. 

Newt delayed his travels, so Tina could be at her sisters' weddings. But after Dora and Remus' wedding, they were off to travel for an undefinite time. They traveled to jungles, deserts, seasides, and they would've gone to the edge of the world, if it was possible. They returned to Burrows just in time for Luna and Rolf's wedding. And to the shock of absolutely no one, they had eloped a year prior. 

After another year of traveling, Tina and Newt settled down in Burrows with two children and recused creatures. 

In the end, the twelve couples lived lively and full of joy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I fell in love with this idea too much now because I just want to write the 12 sisters living together, growing up, and just interact with one another.


	3. Queenie and the (Baker) Frog

There once lived a beautiful dressmaker on the edge a kingdom. She was kind, sweet, and open hearted to anyone and everyone she met. She, however, was well acquainted with loss, which closed parts of her heart over the years. The lost of her parents was deeply rooted in her, but she still kept her kindness and openness. It was the disappearance of Teenie, the little flower maiden and her only living family, that shattered her heart.

She woke up one spring morning and saw Teenie and her walnut bed gone. After waiting a few days for Teenie to return and nothing happened, she closed off her heart from loving anyone else. She put all of her emotions (grief, betrayal, melancholy, unconditional love for her parents and Teenie) into her work. But a part of Queenie still held hope that Teenie would come back, but it became harder when spring changed to summer and summer changed to autumn.

 

On one fine morning, Queenie was going through her new routine of sketching designs by the lake in the middle of the forest. She just finishing her last drawing of the day, and was packing her pencils back into the tin box. But her fingers were slippery from smudging graphite marks, and her pencils slipped out of her fingers and rolled down into the lake. Queenie dropped her sketches and leapt towards the lake in hopes of grabbing the pencils before they sunk too deep. The pencils didn't sink, but they did float out into the middle of the lake, which made it impossible for Queenie to reach them. The lake, as Queenie learned one warm summer day, was deceptively deep and the middle area, where her pencils were, was too deep for her.

"No!" she cried. "Those were the last of Teenie's pencils! Please give them back! I can't lose them! I'll give up anything for them!

Whilst she was crying, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, "Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?".

"Princess?" Queenie looked down at the talking frog. "Are you speaking to me?"

"Of course, princess," the frog smiled, but to Queenie it looked like a grimace.

"I'm no princess," Queenie said, "you must have me mixed up with someone else."

"Surely not!" the frog insisted. "You were crying about your Teenie's lost pencil, were you not?"

"Yes, but I'm just a dressmaker, no royal blood in me."

"Impossible!" the frog incredulously yelped. "It is inconceivable that someone as radiant as you are not part of a royal family."

Queenie was quite used to hearing compliments from the men she talked to in town and continued on, ”Why are you here?"

"I came to help the crying beautiful maiden. How may I be at your service?"

"Can you swam into the lake and retrieve my pencils?" Queenie said.

"Of course, but may I ask for a favor in return?"

"I don't have any riches or anything special to give."

"Do not fret, I do not want any fine objects. All I ask for is to eat off your plate, sleep on your bed, and your love in return for fetching your pencils."

Queenie thought the frog was silly with his request for her love, but she needed to get those pencils back. So she agreed to the frog's conditions, for now thinking that she could leave the frog behind.

The frog gave her an odd salute before swimming towards her pencils. He stayed in her sight the whole time. She watched him taking her pencils into his month one by one and swam back to her.

As soon as frog was on shore, she grabbed her pencils and other sketch materials and ran home.

"I'm so sorry, Mister Frog," she cried over her shoulders.

It could've been a trick of the light, but she swore that the frog look disappointed. In spite of that, he still called out after her, "Remember maiden, you made a promise."

But she was too far to hear anything.

 

Queenie spent the next afternoon in a measurement session with Seraphina, a wealthy regular client, who needed a new dress for her engagement announcement.After, she just sat down with Seraphina to eat sweets, when she heard a strange noise - tap, tap - plash, plash - as if something was coming up to her door. Soon afterwards, there was a little gentle knock. Queenie swiftly rose and went to the door, it could be Tina. When she opened the door, she looked at that ground hoping to see the flower maiden, but only saw the frog from the lake. At the sight of him, she closed the door and went back to her seat.

"Who was it?" Seraphina asked.

"Just a frog," Queenie nonchalantly said as she took a sip of tea.

"A frog? I know you have a number of suitors, but charming a frog is bit much, don't you think?"

Queenie gave Seraphina a mock glare, "I didn't charm him. He swam out into the lake to retrieve Teenie's pencils I'd dropped. But he wanted to live with me and my love in return. Now he's at my door and wants to come in."

After her explanation, there was another knock accompanied with singing,

"Open the door, my maiden dear,

Open the door to thy true love here!

Never have I met a maiden so sincere.

Please know you didn’t miss hear.”

"It sounds like he fulfilled his side," Seraphina winced at frog's voice, "so you must keep your word."

"But love?" Queenie almost whined.

"He will never replace your Tina, but there's always room for more," Seraphina sagely said.

Queenie reluctantly agreed, so she opened the door and the frog hopped into the home. He went straight to the table where Seraphina sat - tap, tap - plash, plash - and looked back to Queenie, "Pray lift me upon your chair and let me sit next to you."

Seraphina watched in amusement as Queenie did exactly what the frog said.

When Queenie sat back down herself, the frog said, "Bring your plate nearer to me, then I may eat out of it."

With the most emotion Seraphina seen on in a long while, Queenie shoved her plate of sweets to the frog.

The frog had trouble chewing the pastries, but he was determined to try the maiden's pie and strudels. Giving up on chewing the pastries, he opted to lick the sweets and taste as much flavor as he could.

"My dearest maiden, did you create these flavors?" the frog asked.

"Yes, pie and strudels are my baking speciality," Queenie answered.

"You truly are beautiful maiden, inside and out," the frog said with no shame.

When Queenie ignored him and Seraphina laughed, he went back to licking the pastries.The maidens finished their pastries and Seraphina had to get home to her affianced. That left Queenie with the frog while she worked. She ignored as best she could, his silly overdramatic comments were endearing him to her, but she was determined not to be effected by them. It's arguable how successful she was, she did make him a cup of hot cocoa before bed. When she was preparing for bed, the frog demanded to sleep on her pillow. She allowed it, as it was part of the deal, but she made him promise to stay on the corner.

He fell fast asleep immediately, while she had more trouble. It has been a long time since she's had someone else with her at night. Teenie rarely slept in her bed, they were both afraid that she would get crushed, but she always risk it on the night of her parents death and whenever she had a nightmare. Teenie slept almost exactly where the frog was. She didn't get as much sleep as she should've for the plans she had for herself.

She woke up later than usual and saw that the frog was gone from her pillow. She thought he was somewhere in her home, like the kitchen, which seemed to fascinated him. But when she search every nook and cranny, she couldn't find any sign of him. And she cursed her heart when she felt a prick of disappointment that he had left too. 

With nothing she could do to find the frog, she went on with her day. She avoided the lake in the forest in case he went there; instead, she went into town to buy some more thread. Once finished with that task, she set out to her first fitting of the day, a noblewoman's coming of age dress. Said noblewoman, Leta of the Lestrange house, was an odd child in higher circles, but Queenie liked her dedication to her research. She felt Leta glowing whenever she talked about her latest project. Her methods, however, were a bit untrustworthy as she admitted she didn't mind harming others if it meant furthering her research. But as a customer, Leta was the perfect: knew what she wanted, while keeping in mind somethings were out of the realm of possibility.

After adding the finishing touches on Leta's dress, Queenie went back home to start on some other dress orders. She was working through dinner, when a voice came through the window,

"Open the door, my maiden dear,

Open the door to thy true love here!

Never have I met a maiden so sincere.

Please know you didn’t miss hear.”

A knock followed the end of the song.

Queenie opened the door faster than the previous day, but still ignored the frog as it hopped in. He remained by her side as she worked.

When she was getting ready for bed, the frog plopped himself onto her pillow in the same corner as before. He waited for her to settle in before falling asleep. She observed the frog for a bit before sleeping. He was certainly thinner than the other frogs she seen. He had an odd brown pattern above his mouth, she was sure if he was human, he'd have a mustache similar to it. She dozed off for the night wondering where he'd gone during the day.

Days passed in a similar manner, Queenie would wake up alone, do her work, the frog would come back in time for dinner, and she'd fall asleep with the frog on the corner of her pillow.

Over time he became more and more bold in his requests. One night he wanted to assistance her in her work. Another he wanted to bake her pastries, which he needed some assistances. And she spent the night smiling at his clumsy baking and enjoyed baking with him. 

As autumn turned into winter, Queenie started to worry about the frog during the day. It was certainly the coldest at night, when he was with her, but the day weather was nippy too. She also wondered how long he was going to keeping coming to her home. She enjoyed making extra food, and it was nice cooking for two again. And would be sad to see him leave.

She came home late on winter night and saw the frog waiting for her, "Welcome home, maiden."

"Hello," Queenie set down her stack of fabric she just bought. She looked at her kitchen area and saw he was finishing baking something. "What were you baking?"

"I was strucked by inspiration and motivation to bake something for you as a surprise," he said and laid down a round pastry on a plate for her.

"What is this?" Queenie sat down.

"It's called a paczki. My dearly departed grandmother often baked them for me whenever I had a long day. And I've seen how much you've work over the last few days, so here a gift for all your work."

"Thank you," Queenie smiled and tentatively ate the pastry. The outside dough was very sweet with a mix of her preserved fruits. "It's very good."

"Thank you, maiden," the frog stood on his back legs and gave a mockingly bow.

"This was very sweet of you," Queenie said.

"It's very little compared to the kindness you've showed me this season. I thank you for letting me come back every night."

"Ah, it's nothing much. I'm happy to help," Queenie said. "But I was wondering if you wanted to stay at my home during the day as well."

"Truly?" the frog's posture perked up and his eyes widen.

"It's getting colder and colder and you shouldn't be out there, you might freeze."

"I would love nothing more!" the frog excitedly said.

The pair spent a quiet night together. And when it was time for bed, Queenie thought fondly of the frog before falling asleep.

The next morning, Queenie open her eyes to see the most beautiful and honest eyes she's even seen gazing at her. Instead of the frog, a handsome man was holding her.

"You, uh, must be the frog," Queenie was speechless.

"Uh, right," the man was equally confused, "sorry about this," he unwrapped his arms from her and got out of the bed. He was shorter than her and had dark hair and eyes. His round figure gave him a soft air that drew her towards him.

"You were really a human the whole time?" Queenie thought it was a bit odd he knew a human pastry so well, but if it was a human grandmother, that makes more sense than the grandmother frog she was imagining.

"I was cursed by a sorceress a year ago," the frog-turned-man said.

"What happened?"

"I, uh, was engaged with a sorceress, but Mildred, the sorceress, didn't think I was poetic enough, so she casted a spell on me. But the spell… was more complicated than she thought, so I got turned into a frog."

She gasped in the middle of his story, "What happened to the sorceress?"

"She broke our engagement. She didn't know how to return me back, so she left me."

"Oh, you poor thing," Queenie's heart broke for him. "What changed you back?"

"Honestly? I'm not quite sure. I think it had something to do with the deal we made."

And suddenly they realized the same point: the last point of the deal, Queenie's love, must not have been fulfill until last night.

"Ah…I should introduce myself, I'm Prince Jacob of the Kowalski kingdom."

"You're a prince?" Queenie couldn't imagine that his kingdom was pleased with him being gone for so long.

"Yes, but I don't want anything but for you to come with me to my grandmother's old bakery, where I hope amaze you with my family baking. And later I hope to propose to you, marry you, and love you for as long as we live."

"I would love to see your family's bakery, and I already know I'll say yes to your proposal!" Jacob beamed at her, and off of his excitement, she grinned too. "However," his face fell a small bit, "I don't want to marry until Teenie returns home."

Jacob's smile returned at her words, "I can wait. Teenie is an important person to you, so of course we should wait until she's home."

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" she rushed off the bed and tackled him with a hug and kiss on the checks, but he still felt the corner of her lips on his.

"Of course. I never knew what my heart looked like until I met you. Anything that makes you happy, makes me happy."

Upon hearing his words, Queenie leaned in to kiss him fully on the lips.

The two went to Prince Jacob's family bakery, where he did indeed propose to her, before they went to his castle to introduce her to his parents, who were very accepting of Queenie. They spent the next year and a half engaged and getting to know each other as human to human.

Once Teenie returned, on the anniversary on her disappearance no less, Queenie and Jacob immediately held a kingdom-wide wedding. And they both lived life happily and lovingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For now, this is the conclusion of this little mini series. I have a few more ideas (more Dancing Princesses AU, Beauty and the Beast AU, and some others), but I do have two other ongoing fanfics that I need to focus on, so my priority will be there, but this series will be in the back of my mind. 
> 
> Thanks so much for reading!


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